Nice:
Zo2 (Nice dudes, me and Paulie talked for a good 10 minutes about all sorts of shit)
Bret Michaels and CC. Deville
All the dudes I've met from KISS, Paul and Gene especially
Dio (Didn't really talk to him but he was nice and signed my shit and shook my hand, I wish I wouldn't have been such a pussy and actually said something but I was honestly star struck)
Vinnie Appice (Same time I met Dio, I didn't say shit either )
Steve Vai

As for "dicks" nobody really, I've read stories about tons of them but never had a negative experience.

Aw, yeah. Liz rocks. She was one of the most down-to-earth band members I've ever met. Their guitarist Mike was cool, too - and their touring guitarist Laura was a real sweetheart as well. She gives great hugs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Derelict

Cool

Jeff from High on Fire was hands down the coolest

Matt Pike is also really cool - I've met him twice.

Quote:

Originally Posted by treghet

Bill from Decrepit Birth is a nice and interesting guy to talk to.

Totally. I talked to him for several minutes at the Vader show about a year ago.

As for my list...it was pretty much non-existent until about five years ago - but since then, I have all kinds of cool stories, videos, photos and anecdotes that I'd love to share. Maybe I'll elaborate on a few later, but for now, here is a list of some of the most memorable (besides those mentioned above):

Linus Jägerskog from Burst is cool as balls - we talked about tons of stuff at their gig in Detroit last year.

John Baizley of Baroness was also a really awesome dude when I met him in Detroit last year.

Jackie Gratz from Grayceon and Giant Squid is a real sweetheart - and so are Zack Farwell, Chris Lyman, Bryan Beeson and Aaron Gregory (I met all of them at their show in Chicago in 2009).

Phillip Cope from Kylesa was really nice when I talked to him at the Mastodon gig last year (BTW, I didn't get a chance to meet Laura Pleasants that night, but I've heard she is very cool as well).

The guys from Caspian are all really cool. I talked to their bassist Chris Friedrich for a while at their show last summer, and also their guitarist Erin Burke-Moran (who remembered talking to me at their gig with Red Sparowes the year before ).

I've met several of the guys from Pelican on more than one occasion. They are really cool - especially Laurent Lebec and Larry Herweg.

Brendan Tobin from Made Out of Babies (and formerly Red Sparowes) was really cool. I told him that I wanted to meet Julie Christmas that night, but was a little scared to do so. He laughed and said that she is a pretty intense individual (ya think?!?).

Steve Brooks from Mouth of the Architect was very personable when I met him last year.

Andrew Barnes of Gifts from Enola is a really nice guy. He talked to me at length at their gig with If These Trees Could Talk (who were also fairly cool) a few years ago.

James Farwell from Bison B.C. was pretty cool, as was Masa Anzai - I met them at the High on Fire gig in Columbus last year.

I met bassist / vocalist Matt Martinez of Landmine Marathon at Scion Fest last year - he seemed to be a pretty cool guy.

Last but not least - my brother and I were at the merch booth at the Origin show a few years ago, and we were talking about how talented the bass player was in local opening band Fully Consumed. The guy behind the counter said, "yeah, he is pretty good, for sure". Later, when Origin took the stage, we found out the guy we had been talking to was Origin's bassist / vocalist Mike Flores (who is obviously way the fuck better than the guy from Fully Consumed). Ah, good times.

Devin Townsend and Marco Hietala (Nightwish/Tarot) are easily the two nicest guys I've ever met. Schmier from Destruction is also pretty nice, and Nergal has been really nice every time I've met him as well.

Clutch (so down to earth) Honorable mention: Sean The Merch Guy is cool too!
Goatwhore (really cool guys especially Ben)
Watch Them Die (They got a kick out of the fact I though they were Emo-core when I first heard the name)
High On Fire (Pike and the boys were really laid back dudes and Pike was not completely blitzed out of his mind)
Jello Biafra (As long as you don't mention The Dead Kennedy's)
Brett and Greg from Bad Religion (I would so vote for Greg!)
Roger, Vinnie, and Chris from Less Than Jake (Such cool guys)
Tom from Bouncing Souls (very chill and laid back signing my cd)
Mike McColgan, Rick Barton, Al Barr, Ken Casey, Matt Kelley, Jeff Darosa, and James lynch of Dropkick Murphy's (extremely nice guys especially Al who dedicated Curse of a Fallen Soul to a friend of mine who passed away days before the show in Cleveland)
Lars Fredrickson of Rancid (Very cool guy and very intelligent)
Milo Aukerman of Descendents (Extremely intelligent and signed my cd)
Toby from H2O (Very cool guy signed my cd and told me a story about when he was a roadie for Sick of it All)
Justine Sane from Anti-Flag (very cool and educated)
Matt Skiba, Dan Andriano, Derek Grant from Alkaline Trio (Matt was acting a little bit of an asshole but Derek told a story and we all start busting up!)
Dimitri Minakakis and Chris Pennie from The Dillinger Escape Plan (Very laid back and chill guys Pennie signed the drumstick I caught)
Adam Carson, Hunter Burgan, Jade Puget of AFI (Davy doesn't like attention)
Dave Quackenbush, Warren Fitzgerald, Joe Escalante and Josh Freese of The Vandals (Wow these guys especially Warren are awesome!)
Kevin Lyman creator of The Vans Warped Tour, Taste of Chaos, and Mayhem tours. (I thought he would be a prick but, he was like down to earth and just a lover of music)
Igor Calavera of Sepultura (He seemed cool and signed my copy of Arise)
Poison The Well (Very cool guys I met at their booth after their set at Warped Tour)
Chuck Ragan and Chris Wollard of Hotwater Music (see above)
Willie Nelson (Met him because a friend of mines mom used to help organize the talent for a festival in my hometown. He was one of the nicest people I have ever met wish I could have smoked a j with him.)
Sean and J from White Zombie (Very laid back people though wish I could have met Zombie)
Lajon from Sevendust (The band played a side stage at Warped Tour before getting big and the guy was cool as hell)
Mike Muir, Mike Clark, and Dean Pleasants of Suicidal Tendencies (they must have mellowed in the years since the band got voted biggest assholes by Flipside back in 82')
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez of At The Drive In (Very nice guy compared to Cedric)
Fat Mike of NOFX (He nearly made me piss myself that guy should do stand up!)
Karma 2 Burn (very laid back guys)
Wes from Limp Bizkit (such a contrast from Fred)
Skeletonwitch (very cool guys can't wait till they play in Ohio again)
Jurassic 5 (some of the most laid back guys I have ever seen)
Ice T (kind of surprised me but I think he really liked the crowds at Warped Tour)
The New Bomb Turks (Columbus local guys very cool)
Dave King, Bridget Regan and Dennis Casey of Flogging Molly (Met after Dublin Irish Festival and Warped Tour both times very cool people)

Dicks:
Cedric Bixler-Zavala of At The Drive In (met them when him and Omar were still in ATLDI so it could have been the drug abuse)
Dani Filth of Cradle of Filth (total douchebag)
Fred Durst from Limp Bizkit (even before they exploded he was dick)
Warman from Children of Bodom (full of himself)

The guys from Vektor were really cool. And Karl Sanders literally stayed in the venue to sign everything and shake everyone's hand until no one was left. That was awesome. The guys in Evile were really appreciative to anyone that was receptive towards them!

Jerry Only (Misfits) - He signed everything for everybody after the show and was so very polite and kind. Not the asshole that Danzig makes him out to be.Doyle (Misfits) - Very soft spoken and shy, but very friendly.Tony Iommi - VERY nice!!!Alex Webster (Cannibal Corpse) - Probably one of the nicest guys I've ever met. The second time I met him was about 2 years after the first time. And he remembered who I was, what we talked about the first time, and where it was. The man meets hundreds of fans a day and to remember one in such detail blew me away!!

Dicks:

Dave Mustaine (or like I call Dave Cumstaine) - The asshole came out of the venue with 4 security guards and was covering his face with a piece of paper.Janni Warman (Children of Bodom) - Stuck up asshole!!Ralph Santalla (Deicide / Obituary) - I asked him for an interview, he pointed to my inverted cross necklace and said "Not if you're wearing that!!Eric Hoffmann (Deicide) - Asked for a photo and he said "busy!" and kept walking. (it was 4 hours before the show)

The guys from Russian Circles seem like total reclusive types to me, but not necessarily dicks. I think they're just uber shy and / or humble.

I was hoping to get to meet somebody from Isis and / or Red Sparowes at the (two different) shows that they have played at the Grog Shop in Cleveland (a venue that's so small that you almost can't help but meet the band members at some point), but no dice. That doesn't necessarily mean anything, but I did get the impression that some of those dudes are pretty introspective and not into meeting huge groups of fans all the time. Just an impression on my part, though.

My brother got the Pig Destroyer set list signed by frontman J.R. Hayes at MDF VII in 2009. He seemed like a pretty all right guy (J.R., not my brother - he's a dick ).

Gene Hoglan
Richard Christy
Burton Bell - he was pretty drunk at a ministry show, he came up to me to say how much he liked my Amorphis shirt
Fernando (Moonspell) - came up to me to tell me he liked my carnivore shirt
Vortex (ex-dimmu) - he was extremely drunk at the hotel after a festival in NJ, he told us to come by his room later for some beers
Keep of Kalessin - was at the bar after a show with those guys and Nergal, all of them were making fun of one of the KoK dudes for not drinking
Silenoz (Dimmu)